Neefer Sews, Crochets, Crafts, Swims, and Blathers about Kids

I’m pretty excited about the upcoming Midwinter Festival of Fertility and Self Indulgence (aka Xmas). The return of the sun is not such a big deal here. I mean, I just stopped wearing shorts a couple of weeks ago, but this year Jack, Eina, Vivian, and Sonoma will be here for Xmas. This will be our first Xmas with/for Sonoma, and our first without my dad. That makes me a little sad. What makes me really sad is that Diego won’t be here. That empty chair makes me want to start bawling.

Enough of the melancholy.

Lately, I’ve felt like I have only 1.5 hours of free time a day. That’s not really true. I like to take a bath at night after everyone goes to bed, but since I’m not a selfless martyr, I find that self care is necessary. There is something heavenly about floating in a tub of hot water and reading a good scifi novel.

So with those 1.5 hours of free time, I want to plan our holiday. Jack & cohorts will be here for about a week, including a weekend, in early December. What shall we do? I suggested to Eina that we ditch husbands and children and go to a printing class in the city, but she was concerned about getting engorged. Ha, ha. No, she was concerned about Jack not being able to breastfeed Sonoma.

Sniff, they will be in Colorado for my birthday. I don’t really care. I’m not sure what I to do for my birthday. It’s not a big deal to me, altho I would be disappointed if DH & kiddos didn’t have a little celebration for me. I want to do something big for my 50th, but that’s not for a few years yet, and I think I want to do it sometime not in December. Boy, can I blather on or what?

Anyway, there is a lot that I want to do, and very limited time to do it. I have to wrap my head around everything that I want to do and prioritize it. Also, I would like to take into account things that others might like to do. And finally, I like to make cute, pretty things including organizers/calendars. When I saw this post (on pinterest, of course), I knew that I had to do this.

This was really easy to whip together. I have the decorative paper, an extra composition notebook (because I can’t resist a good clearance sale), and glue. I made the tree out of punchouts, also from my decorative paper stash. Instead of handwriting my tab labels, I used the computer and some fun fonts that I downloaded. I like to use a different font on every tab. My tabs are Decorations, Menu (should be Menus), The List, Calendar, To Do, and Cards. I also included 2 envelopes: Receipts and Coupons. Except for “Decorations”, these were the tabs/labels suggested in Under the Sycamore. On the last page of the planner, I started writing down my purchases. For example, I bought a present from the Halloween clearance at Target, and I bought a 120 inch (3 meter) 100% cotton Xmas table cloth at Target. Those table cloths are hard to find, and while cobbling 2 together works, I really like the look of just one table cloth better. Anyway, next year, I will have to include a Purchases tab, if I do this again.

Well, rats, I copied some xmas planner lists from somewhere and forgot to write down the source. I downloaded December and January calendars from Any Thing But Perfect. Menu Planner, Gift Worksheet, and Decorations – While I retyped these, I’m not claiming them as my original idea. Hopefully, soon, I will find the source.